


Friends With Benefits

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-02 14:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10946247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: AU: Jughead never went to Riverdale High and never became friends with Betty and the gang the way they were supposed to. Archie, Jughead, and Betty were close in middle school, but once they parted ways and Jughead followed in his father’s footsteps of becoming a Serpent, their friendship was never the same. But when his relationship with Betty reaches a new level, it poses an even greater threat to all of their friendships in ways that no one is ready for.





	1. Chapter 1

Betty brushed past Cheryl Blossom as she hurried her way down the freshly-mowed lawn of Riverdale High’s courtyard, nearly snagging her baby blue sweater on one of Cheryl’s particularly sharp insect brooches as their shoulders slammed into one another.

“B, where the hell have you been?” Veronica called to her from their usual picnic table at the end of the quad, her prized set of pearls shining elegantly in the mid-afternoon sunlight.

Ignoring the icy glare that Cheryl tossed in her direction, Betty maneuvered her way through the crowd of chatting classmates to slip her way onto the bench of the picnic table next to Kevin, just as Veronica turned to narrow her eyes at Betty. “I’ve had to listen to Cheryl’s incessant ramblings regarding the subpar quality of her brand new Louboutins for the past half hour and trust me, when I reach the point of boredom beyond repair talking about designer shoes, you know there’s a problem.”

“Sorry, something came up,” Betty mumbled, shrugging off her pale pink backpack and placing it on the wooden surface in front of her. 

“There have been a lot of things ‘coming up’ lately,” Veronica pointed out. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say our little, not-so-innocent Elizabeth Cooper has a man in her life she’s been hiding from us.”

“Yeah, right,” Betty scoffed, unzipping her bag and rummaging through its contents to find the salt and vinegar chips she didn’t eat at lunch. “You know how terrible I am at keeping secrets. Remember your surprise birthday party last year?”

“How could I forget? You asked me to come over to help you with an English paper,” Veronica recounted the event in question, shaking her head in shame at Betty’s failed attempt at such a classic form of surprise. “The day Betty Cooper asks Veronica Lodge for homework advice, you know there has to be something else going on.” 

Betty’s lips curled into a slight smile, her expression distant as she reached into the bag of chips and popped one into her mouth, repeating this process for several minutes without blinking or acknowledging that there were other people sitting at the table with her.

“Kind of like now,” Veronica mumbled, waving a perfectly manicured set of nails in front of her in an attempt to snap her out of the trance she had fallen into. “Look at her face, Kev. There’s something wrong with it.”

“You’re right, V,” Kevin concurred, leaning in close and tilting Betty’s chin towards him with a flick of his thumb. “There’s an actual smile on it. Hell must have frozen over.”

“Hey, I smile!” Betty defended herself, her too-tight ponytail nearly smacking Kevin in the face as she whirled around to look from Veronica, to Kevin, and back again. 

“Not since Polly-” Kevin started to explain, but before he could get the words out, Veronica lunged across the table to place a hand over his mouth, nearly knocking various textbooks and papers onto the grass in the process. 

“Shhh!” Veronica quieted him. “Kevin, we agreed that bringing up such events should be handled as if one were at Hogwarts and in the position of saying the name Voldemort - you just don’t do it!”

“Sorry,” Kevin shrank back onto his spot on the bench. “Let me rephrase. You’ve been a little down the past few months, but lately-”

“You’re happier than Kevin during a Brad Pitt movie marathon,” Veronica finished for him, her eyes dancing wildly as she leaned in to point a finger in Betty’s direction. “And that can only mean one thing.” 

“Betty Cooper: number one in her class, editor of the Blue and Gold and all around girl next door, is getting a little ‘Fifty Shades of Freaky’ with one of Riverdale High’s finest young bachelors,” Kevin concluded, his arms crossing in front of his chest as if he were proud of himself for solving such a complicated riddle. 

“I am not!” Betty protested. “You two have way too much time on your hands if you’re speculating why I’ve been smiling more lately.” 

“What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t notice such things,” Kevin pointed out, his gaze suddenly leaving his friends to focus on the parking lot in front of them. “Kind of like how I’ve noticed Jughead Jones’ massive biceps lately, holy hot and bothered Rolling Stone-meets-Abercrombie you can actually see them bulging through that leather jacket.” 

The boy in question stepped out of his midnight-black 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner, his dark hair falling effortlessly over his eyes as he moved to shut the driver’s side door.

“Joining the Southside Serpents has really sat well with his upper body muscles,” Veronica admired, her mouth hanging open slightly as he pulled out a cigarette and lighter from his jacket pocket like he was plucked straight out a scene from the Outsiders. “Too bad he doesn’t go here anymore, I would love to run my hands up and down those-”

“Veronica!” Betty’s eyes went wide as she turned to glare at her friend, whose mouth was practically watering as she took in Jughead leaning against the classic car and taking a drag from his cigarette like she was watching the most sensual thing she had ever laid eyes on. “Last time I checked you still have a boyfriend, or have you forgotten about our good pal Archie Andrews. You know, captain of the football team, lead singer of his very own rock band, Riverdale High honor student. Ring any bells?”

“Oh please, I’m allowed to window shop as long as I resist throwing anything into my basket,” Veronica muttered, picking up her copy of The Sun Also Rises and fanning herself with it, even though it was a perfectly cool fall afternoon that didn’t even come close to meriting such actions. 

“That’s wrong on so many levels,” Betty mumbled, pushing her half-eaten bag of chips away from her and wiping her greasy fingers down the front of her sweater.

“What’s Jughead doing here anyway?” Kevin wondered. “I thought he and Archie stopped talking once he moved schools a few years ago.” 

“He’s here to see me actually,” Betty admitted, turning in her spot on the bench to look at Jughead for the first time since he had pulled into the parking lot. “He was the best writer we had at the the junior newspaper in middle school and no one’s ever come close to filling his shoes, so he’s helping me out a few times a week after school at the Blue and Gold.” 

“You sure he’s not helping you out with a few other things too?” Veronica wiggled her eyebrows at Betty suggestively, her lips creeping up into an amused smile as Betty narrowed her eyes at her. 

“Just friends, Veronica,” Betty assured her. “Jughead isn’t Archie’s favorite person right now and after everything that’s happened with their fathers - I just - I wouldn’t do that to him, okay?” 

“Whatever you say, B,” Veronica shrugged, still looking unconvinced as she reached underneath the table to retrieve her cheer bag. “Okay, I have to go find Cheryl before River Vixens practice so I can warn her that the choreography she’s been throwing at us is too 90′s cheer routine and not enough Beyonce video like we were going for.” 

“Yeah, and I have to go witness the bloodbath of bitchy, yet impressively clever insults that is sure to occur as a result so we’ll see you later, Betty,” Kevin followed Veronica’s lead as she made her way away from the picnic table, the giddiness in his expression made even more evident by the enthused squeal escaping his lips as he bent down to pick up his backpack. 

“Bye, guys,” Betty called out to them, shaking her head in amusement as she watched them round the corner to head back into the school. 

Betty kept her gaze focused on the chemistry textbook resting open in front of her as she saw the movement coming from the parking lot out of the corner of her eye. Jughead had pushed off his car and was slowly making his way onto the sidewalk leading up to the courtyard. Her breath caught in her throat as he took a step closer. And another. And an-

“And then there was one,” Jughead announced, his leather-clad sleeve brushing the soft fabric of her sweater as he slid his way onto the picnic table next to her. “What’s it like without chatter mouth one and two attached to your hip?” 

“I don’t know,” Betty sat up straight, turning slightly on the bench to quirk a challenging eyebrow in his direction. “What’s it like without your manhood to back up that newfound edginess that drives all the girls crazy? Wanna find out?”

“Betty Cooper,”Jughead beamed, one leg tucking underneath itself so that he could turn his body to face hers completely. “Throwing the banter back at me like we’re in a 1940′s black and white screwball comedy. I like it.” 

“You’re early,” Betty noticed, her eyes focusing back on the periodic table displayed on the inside cover of the chemistry book. 

“I ditched the last two periods,” Jughead shrugged nonchalantly, scooping up the abandoned bag on chips on the table and tossing back a handful into his mouth. “I figured that I’ve already learned as much as I needed to know about 17th Century England and the Taming of the Shrew to pass with at least a C in both history and English and still function in the real world like an adequately intelligent human being so why not skip out early and come see you?” 

Jughead crumpled up the now-empty chip bag and tossed it behind him, missing the trashcan completely as he looked back to watch it roll onto the grass. Leaning in close, Jughead rubbed a hand on her knee resting underneath the table, his breath tickling the exposed skin of her neck and nearly causing a thrilled giggle to escape her lips.

“Jug,” Betty warned, reaching down to remove the hand slowly creeping its way up her thigh and turning to give him a leveled glare. “We agreed, remember?”

“You agreed,” Jughead corrected. “I said friends with benefits was a dated form of emotional torture that benefits neither party in any meaningful way.” 

“Isn’t that the point?” Betty reminded him. “To not get attached in a way that lets you mean something to the other person?” 

“I think that ship has sailed,” Jughead admitted, his eyes flicking to hers with a vulnerable state of truth-turned-worry when he realized that she might night have felt the same way. “At least on my part anyways.” 

“You know that we can’t be anything more than what we are,” Betty explained. “At least not right now.” 

“Because Archie blames me for my father’s involvement in his father’s shooting and he would love nothing more than to see me strung up on the mantle of his nice and cozy family-sized home,” Jughead recalled, his eyes rolling backwards dramatically sliding his leg back underneath the table and facing the empty set of picnic tables across the courtyard. “Yeah, you said that when we first started - whatever you want to call this. Doesn’t mean I understand it. And it doesn’t mean I have to like it.” 

“Juggie,” Betty whispered, resisting the urge to reach out and caress his cheek affectionately the way she had grown accustomed to since they had started their relationship nearly eight weeks before. 

“You know how I feel about you, Betty,” Jughead told her, his eyes softening slightly as his head turned to smile weakly down at her lips. “And I think that if you were being completely honest with yourself, you know exactly how you feel about me too.” 

Betty knew he was right. She knew that she felt more than just lust, coupled with the added bonus of orchestrating their clandestine meetings, for the boy from the Southside who was more than just his leather jacket and tough demeanor. But she couldn’t risk her friendship with either boy in her life by making things official. Not yet.

“This is the way things have to be right now,” Betty sighed. “At least until Mr. Andrews gets out of the hospital and everything just - settles down. Please, Jughead. I don’t want to lose you. But I don’t want to lose him either.” 

Betty held Jughead’s gaze, her bottom lip jutting out slightly as her teeth automatically reached out to bite down on the tender skin there, a habit she had formed around the time she had started seeing Jughead in a little-more-than-just-friends kind of way.

“God, why do you have to do that thing with your bottom lip,” Jughead mumbled, his eyes flicking down to her pink lips with a fleck of longing in his gaze. “You know that drives me insane.” 

“I know,” Betty beamed, her eyebrow quirking flirtatiously up in his direction. “Why do you think I do it so often?” 

“Okay, if we’re still playing by these ridiculous rules you’ve set in place then we better get to the Blue and Gold room because I’m feeling the overwhelming urge to kiss you,” Jughead breathed, his heart beating wildly as Betty’s leg brushed against his, making his palms sweat in the best way possible. “Now.” 

“Then what are we waiting for,” Betty leaned in close to Jughead as if she were going to meet her lips to his, but swung her legs out from underneath the picnic table at the last second and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. “Race you.” 

“You’re on.” Jughead grabbed Betty’s bag off the table and sprinted after her, not even noticing that there had been a figure lurking in the shadows who had witnessed their intimate exchange with a devious smile plastered on her flaming red lips. Turning on her less-than-adequate Louboutin heel, Cheryl let her waist-length red hair swing playfully behind her as she sauntered her way to cheer practice, already scheming and plotting how she was going to use this juicy new development to her advantage.


	2. Blackmail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl presents Betty with an impossible choice that threatens to take away her passion, her love life, and any happiness she had built up over the past few months after Polly left town.

Betty glanced up from the heavily pencil-marked notebook paper resting on the mahogany desk, the exasperated eye roll resting patiently behind her eyelids threatening to take over as she squinted at the scribbles and lines in front of her. 

“Jug,” Betty called to the leather jacket-less boy standing by the floor to ceiling window with a wooden pencil tucked behind his ear. “You have got to be kidding me.” 

“What?” He feigned innocence as he turned away from the view overlooking the courtyard and took a step closer to the golden-haired girl sitting hunched over one of the massive desks with a look of annoyance written all over her face. 

“I know you don’t expect me to read this chicken scratch,” Betty mumbled, shoving the paper in his direction and leaning back in the rolling chair with an irritated huff. 

“Bets, it’s been scientifically tested that writers have significantly worse handwriting than most people in their age and gender demographic,” Jughead pointed out, placing the paper back in the center of the desk with a sense of pride overtaking his expression. “Don’t diss a literary genius for his hastily executed penmanship when he chooses to spend his time creating eloquently crafted stories instead of taking his time with his handwriting.”

“I’m pretty sure that test had numerous inconsistencies,” Betty reminded him, pushing herself out of the chair and taking a few steps closer to Jughead to place a delicate hand on his chest. “Besides, you’re just making excuses for how you can’t handle writing with plain old pen and paper instead of being in front of your laptop to get a story done.” 

“Oh really?” Jughead quirked an amused eyebrow down at her as she sidestepped his attempted embrace and hopped up to sit on the desk behind him in one swift motion. “If that’s the case, then maybe you should give me a handwriting lesson. Since you’re such a pro and all.” 

“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” Betty agreed, pushing him back with one hand as he attempted to close the gap between them. “And after that I’ll teach you how to reign in the egotistically asinine backtalk you’ve gotten so good at lately.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Jughead teased, reaching up to gently pry her hand from his chest and taking it in his grip. “Seems like you could learn a thing or two about that yourself.” 

“Is that right?” Betty raised a challenging eyebrow at him as he positioned himself between her legs dangling off the edge of the desk, leaning in so close that the tip of his nose brushed against hers as his hands slid down her arms to rest comfortably around her waist.

“Definitely,” he breathed, her arms snaking around his shoulders as their lips finally met for a soft, but passionate kiss. 

As Betty’s legs wrapped around Jughead’s hips and his hands slipped underneath her knitted pink sweater, the gentleness disappeared and the passion took over the way it always did when they were together. Just as they adjusted their body weight to lean back onto the table, a booming knock coming from the front of the room startled them into sitting upright, nearly kicking a stack of dictionaries onto the tiled floor from the unexpected movement. 

“Knock, knock!” 

The couple pulled away from each other and Betty flung herself off the desk, reaching out to steady herself on Jughead’s shoulder as she struggled to regain her balance. 

“Cheryl!” Betty gasped, frantically pulling down on the hem of her crumpled sweater in her attempt to straighten it out as much as possible. “What are you doing in the Blue and Gold room?” 

“Fear not, my significantly less attractive and far less remarkable Lois Lane and Clark Kent,” Cheryl greeted them with a fake smile, her ruby red lips glowing an ugly shade of burnt orange in the harsh fluorescent lights of the classroom. “I haven’t come to take over your little craft corner of a newspaper room in the valiant effort to put it too far better, far more interesting use just yet.”

“Okay, then why are you-” Jughead started to ask, but was promptly cut off by Cheryl shoving a perfectly pointed fingernail up to his lips in her attempt to quiet him. 

“Wait a minute,” she smirked, tossing her long red hair behind one shoulder and taking a few more steps into the room. “That’s exactly why I’m here. The River Vixens need a better locale to prepare for football games, sans the repugnant odor the girl’s volleyball team leaves behind after their practices. Your sorry excuse for a newsroom will make for an adequately sized dressing area don’t you think?”

“Forget it, Cheryl,” Jughead shot back. “How could you possibly think that we would give up the Blue and Gold room so your cheerleading squad can primp and polish yourselves to scream at a bunch of football players from the sidelines?”

“Because you Southside garden snake,” Cheryl snapped, her eyes narrowing to glare in their direction as if they were scum on the bottom of her overpriced designer shoe. “I have dirt on the two of you that would break a certain ginger-haired stallion’s heart if anyone were to leak such information over to his side of football field.” 

“You don’t know anything,” Betty muttered, her fists curling up into two angry balls as she felt the overwhelming fit of rage bubbling up inside of her that was all too familiar. 

“Oh don’t I?” Cheryl fluttered a set of dark lashes at Betty as she reached into her leather handbag to pull out her phone. “Then showing Archie this picture of you two locking lips borderline NC-17 style would be acceptable?”

With one click of a button, the image of Betty wrapped up in Jughead’s arms blinked onto the screen, the intimate moment thought to have been shared only by the couple, showing much more than either of them would have liked anyone else to witness. 

“You were spying on us?” Jughead gaped at the redheaded deviant in complete and utter disgust. “Cheryl, that’s low even for you.” 

“No, what’s low is that wench of a friend of yours, Veronica Lodge, thinking she can take over my squad a get away with it,” Cheryl spat, tugging the phone away from their view and sliding it back into her purse for safe keeping. “Scoring the Vixens a new dressing room will win the girls back from her villainous talons once and for all. Then all will be right with the world yet again and we can all move on with our lives.”

“There’s no way Principal Weatherbee would go for this,” Betty reminded her. “The school has set aside a budget for the newspaper, not to mention that it counts as credit hours for-”

“Oh, he’s already signed off on it,” Cheryl informed them, a devious smirk creeping onto her lips as she took in their bewildered expressions with a sense of accomplished delight. “Mommy promised to fund the next three school-sanctioned events if he agreed. The only glitch is that he can’t forcibly remove you from the paper and ask you to give up your credit hours. That’s against school policy. But I assured him that all it would take was a little persuasion on my part and-”

“You mean blackmail,” Jughead corrected her, his voice so low that it nearly came out as a vehement growl. 

“Call it what you will,” Cheryl sighed, pulling at the sleeves of her dark red mini dress and smirking unapologetically. “But regardless, it seems as though you have a tough decision to make. Risk the friendship with your BFF of nine plus years by revealing the betrayal of epic proportions or relinquish your rights to the Blue and Gold for good.” 

“Forget it, Betty,” Jughead whispered, turning to her with concerned eyes and a deep-set frown. “You don’t need the room to run a newspaper, we can ask your mom if we can use the Register’s resources and-”

“Au contraire,” Cheryl crooned, taking a step closer to Betty to place a firm hand on the wooden surface of the desk in front of her. “No more Blue and Gold room, no more Blue and Gold. Principal Weatherbee’s rule. It was a dying art form to begin with. He decided it was best to cut his losses in the long run, if you were to sign off on it of course.” 

Betty whirled around to face Jughead with pleading eyes, the hopelessness in her expression giving him the urge to reach out and comfort her, but knowing better not to. 

“You have 24 hours to make your decision,” Cheryl announced. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have fabric to buy for the velvet lounge chairs I’m planning to put in that corner over there. The decor in this place is seriously depressing, I can’t wait to work my magic. Later, losers.” 

With one last flick of her luscious locks behind her shoulder, Cheryl turned on her heel to make her grand exit out of the Blue and Gold room, leaving Betty and Jughead to stare opened-mouth at one another as they tried to comprehend what just happened. 

“She can’t do this, Bets,” Jughead told her, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on her elbow. “We won’t let her.”

“She’s a Blossom, Jughead,” Betty reminded him. “They have all the power in this town and in this school. We don’t have a choice.” 

“Yes, we do,” Jughead assured her. “We tell Archie about us before Cheryl can.” 

“We already talked about this,” Betty mumbled, backing away from his touch and crossing the room to stare absentmindedly at the cluttered bulletin board displaying various school news and activities. “Telling Archie isn’t an option.” 

“Let me get this straight,” Jughead muttered, his brows furrowing together in confusion as he tried to wrap his head around what she was saying. “You would rather give up the one thing you’re most passionate about in order to keep our relationship quiet from the person who cut me out of his life in the first place because of something my father did, than end all the secrets and lies once and for all and just come clean? Is that about the gravity of the situation or did I miss something?”

“You don’t get it, Jug,” Betty whispered, the tears beginning to spring up in the corners of her eyes as she lifted her chin slightly to meet his gaze with an agonized whimper. “Archie was there for me when Polly left town and I was at my lowest point. I owe it to him to be there while he’s going through everything with his Dad. I’m telling you, it’s just not the right time.” 

“Are you sure it’s not something else?”

Betty knitted her brows together, shaking her head in confusion as she wracked her brain for any information that would hint at what he could have been referring to. “Like what?” 

“Like you’re ashamed of being with a pile of Southside trash like me,” Jughead spat, the words falling off his tongue as if it were physically painful to utter them. 

“Of course not, Jughead, you know I could never think that,” Betty assured him, taking a few steps closer to place her hands on the smooth skin of his cheeks. “I love who you are, every part of you.” 

“You’re just not _in_ love with me,” Jughead concluded, wrapping his hands around her wrists and pushing her away. “Maybe that’s it. Maybe you can’t feel anything real for the boy from the wrong side of the tracks so you keep him close enough to get in his pants but push him far enough away to avoid feeling a real connection with him.” 

“That’s not true and you know it,” Betty breathed, the hot tears welling up in her eyes and beginning to fall onto her cheeks as she struggled to keep herself from screaming or collapsing into a heap on the titled floor or simply running away from everything altogether. 

“Well it doesn’t matter anymore either way,” Jughead muttered, his expression hard and stony as he held up his hands and backed away from Betty entirely. “I’m done. I’m done with the Blue and Gold. I’m done with this friends with benefits bullshit. And I’m done with you.”

“Juggie-”

“We could have had something special, you and me,” Jughead informed her. “We could have had the real deal. But you chose keeping your friendship with Archie over keeping _anything_ with me. I hope you’re happy with that decision, Betty. Because now you have no boyfriend, no newspaper staff, and no newspaper. Congratulations.”

With one last disappointed glance in her direction, Jughead crossed the room in just as few bounding steps and left the Blue and Gold room for what could have been the last time, slamming the door shut behind him so hard that the plaques hanging on the wall by the chalkboard shook in protest. Sliding down the hard surface of the desk where she and Jughead had just shared an intimate moment on not ten minutes ago, Betty let the tears come hard in fast as she wondered how, and if, she would ever be able to fix this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not to fear, I'm already planning a part 3 and possibly a part 4 of this, if you guys want it of course! I have to have some sort of a happy conclusion for my poor babies, right? ;)


	3. Decide Your Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After their heated fight in the Blue and Gold room, Betty and Jughead took time away from the other to think and cool off so that they could realize what was most important to them. In realizing this, they both make moves to fix what had been damaged in the last 24 hours and for Jughead, the last 2 years, so that they could eventually find their way back into each others arms.

Jughead paced back and forth along the worn sidewalk outside of Archie Andrews’ family home, his mind teeter tottering with the decision to knock on the front door or walk back home to the Southside of town where he belonged and pretend like he hadn’t just shown up at his estranged friend’s house like no time or ill feelings had passed between them at all. 

Just when he had made up his mind to leave well enough alone and turn away from the red-headed boy he hadn’t spoken to in nearly two years, the large red door swung open and Archie stepped out into the fading sunlight of the mid-afternoon autumn day with his lips set in a firm line and eyes dancing with anger . 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Archie’s voice cut through the sleepy neighborhood, booming down the street and disrupting the hushed simplicity of the day like a fog horn on an eerie Sunday morning. 

“We need to talk, Archie,” Jughead told him, taking a cautious step towards the house as he mustered up the courage he had been lacking the past few months to have the conversation he had been dreading for so long. 

“I have nothing to say to you,” Archie spat, pounding down the porch and causing Jughead to scramble backwards onto the sidewalk. “Go home, Jughead.” 

“I’m sorry about your Dad,” Jughead said before Archie could protest. “He didn’t deserve what happened to him and I wish that I could have been there for you the way you were there for me when my father would go on those week long benders when we were kids. I never told you this, but I don’t think I could have gotten through that without you.” 

The stony look on Archie’s face wavered the slightest bit, softening only in the eyes and the way his brows drew together. 

“What happened to us, Arch?” Jughead asked tentatively. “We used to have the kind of friendship authors would write about in children’s books, you know? Pirate adventures in my treehouse-turned-pirate-ship, mud pies in your backyard after an epic rainstorm? How did we get here?”

“Your father was in the same gang that had my father shot and left him for dead,” Archie snapped. “That’s a deal breaker in my book.”

“Our friendship was pretty broken before that and you know it,” Jughead pointed out. “Once I switched schools and joined the Serpents you treated me like I had an extra eye and a giant horn coming out of my forehead.” 

“Maybe I knew you were going to turn out like FP and become king of the Southside,” Archie shot back, although there was a sadness to his voice that gave way to the fact that he was more hurt than angry. “Maybe I didn’t want to be a part of that.” 

“But I haven’t,” Jughead reminded him, not unkindly. “And I think you know that.” 

Archie descended the last step leading down to the sidewalk, shifting his weight on the pavement so that he was eye level with Jughead. They were the picture of polar opposites - the letterman jacket contrasting with the leather in ways than stemmed from much deeper places that just fabric thrown over broad shoulders. 

“I think you know that I had nothing to do with your father’s assault too,” Jughead muttered. “So what’s really going on, Arch?”

Jughead's words were enough to cause the walls Archie had built over the past few years blocking his memories of his friendship with the dark-haired boy from the other side of town, to fall in one swift motion and crumple to the sidewalk. 

"I always knew where my life was heading,” Archie sighed, lowering himself onto the bottom step and pulling his legs up to his chin. Jughead quickly joined him, turning to Archie with a look of expectant curiosity. "Captain of the football team, student council president, ivy league after we graduate. I didn’t know how to juggle all of that with my friendship with you. I didn’t know how to have both. And I know that sucks, and I know you didn’t deserve the way I treated you but I guess I was just being cautious. You remember the stories about my Dad and FP. You know how their friendship ended. All the secrets and lies and betrayal? I didn't want that for us, Jug. But mostly, I guess I was just using my father's assault as an excuse not to make things right because I felt guilty. I knew how selfish I was being. And I knew you didn't deserve that.” 

I would have forgiven you,” Jughead told him. “If it meant being friends again? I would have forgiven the silence and the judgments in a second.” 

"I know," Archie nodded, glancing up to look at Jughead with downcast eyes. "I think that's the worst of it - that I'm screwed up enough to ruin our friendship over nothing and you're willing to forget all of that to save it." 

"We're all screwed up," Jughead reminded him, nudging him playfully in the side with his elbow. 

"I'm really sorry, Jughead," Archie told him, and the honesty in his expression gave Jughead the impression that he really meant it. "Do you think we could ever be friends again?" 

"Depends on how you react to what I'm about to tell you," Jughead admitted, nervously rubbing his sweaty palms along the fabric of his jeans. 

"Okay, what is it?" Archie asked, raising a questioning eyebrow in his direction. 

"It's about Betty,” Jughead admitted. “Something sort of... happened between us. And I’m not sure how you’re going to feel about it.” 

–

“I’m not giving up the Blue and Gold, Cheryl!”

Betty burst through the gymnasium doors where Cheryl Blossom and her River Vixens were finishing up cheer practice, her red hair whipping around as she turned to glare at Betty with wild eyes. 

“Tell Archie, tell the whole school for all I care. I’m done playing by your rules. I’m done playing by any rules period. It’s not worth it.” 

“Well, well,” Cheryl smirked, swinging her duffel bag over her shoulder and sauntering over to the bleacher to pick up her monogrammed water bottle. “Who knew little miss Stepford Betty had real, earth shatteringly honest feelings in her. Deny it all you want, slicked-back-ponytail, but the motivation you had to come stand up to me like a scene in a 1998 chick flick wasn’t fueled by your desire to run that pathetic newspaper of yours. It was driven by your desire to be in the arms of a certain leather-clad rule breaker who resides on the Southside.”

“This isn’t about, Jughead,” Betty shook her head almost too quickly, her blonde ponytail nearly smacking her in the face from the too-fast motion. 

“Enough already,” Cheryl groaned, rolling her eyes dramatically as she closed her water bottle and stuffed it into her bag. “Can we skip all senseless denial and jump straight to the overdue slow motion moment where you have the big epiphany that clues you in to the fact that it’s been about the broody, yet lovable boy from the wrong side of the river all along? Have your grand, When Harry Met Sally moment so we can all move on with our lives would you?”

“Cheryl, I already have trouble understanding what you babble on about ninety percent of the time, but that monologue of yours just reached Donnie Darko level of confusing so if you could just-” 

“God, the dim-witted imbeciles in this town, I swear,” Cheryl mumbled, clapping her hands together so that her cherry-red nails clicked together as she pointed them in Betty’s direction. “Let me spell it out for you. You pushed Jughead away because you were too scared to jump into a real relationship with anyone at all, let alone someone as special to you as he is. It was never about protecting your friendship with the Sing-Along Football Star, Archie Andrews. It was about protecting your heart from getting trampled on the way my brother ran over your sister’s with his fancy Italian sports car.” 

“You think I’m not in a real relationship with Jughead because of what Jason did to Polly?” Betty’s brows knitted together in confusion as she tried to comprehend what Cheryl was saying. “I think all that hairspray has gone to your head, Cheryl.” 

“Deny it all you want, blonde and delirious,” Cheryl smirked, tossing her locks behind one shoulder and shrugging. “But you’re in love with Mr. Hells Angels himself so do us all a favor and go tell him before he finds some other Nancy Drew wannabe to whisk away on his revved up Harley. It’s getting old and I grow bored easily.” 

“But-” 

“Why are we all still standing around like a bunch of paralyzed robots,” Cheryl snapped at her squad. “Shoo! Go get changed, I can smell the sweat-soaked polyester from here!” 

Betty watched the girls shuffle out of the gymnasium, her thoughts swimming with Cheryl’s words as she wondered if there was any shred of truth to them. She had spent so much time and energy keeping Jughead at arms length because she thought Archie would have ended their friendship if the truth had gotten out. But maybe it was her fear of letting someone else in that kept her from being with Jughead. And maybe it was time to push past the fear and take a leap of faith. 

\--

“You and Betty have been...” Archie trailed off, his eyes going wide as he looked at Jughead for confirmation so that he wouldn’t have to fill in the blanks. 

“Yeah,” Jughead mumbled, biting his bottom lip nervously as he waited to hear what Archie had to say about that. “For the past six months.” 

“And you kept it a secret because...?”

“She didn’t want to upset you,” Jughead explained. “She knew that you and I weren’t exactly best buddies, singing campfire songs together or firing up the Xbox in your room to play some senseless video game, so she was afraid that being with me would destroy her friendship with you.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Archie shook his head in confusion, turning to Jughead with concerned eyes. “All I’ve ever wanted is for her to be happy.”

“I know,” Jughead concurred, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and kicking at a pile of rocks on the edge of the sidewalk. 

“That can’t be the whole story,” Archie mumbled. “There has to be something else going on.”

“Agreed,” Jughead nodded, his chin lifting slightly so that he could tentatively meet Archie’s gaze. “So you’re not mad? That we kept a secret this big hidden from you and all?” 

“Trust me, Jug, I haven’t been worthy of your honesty for a long time,” Archie admitted, smiling up at Jughead apologetically. “I think you get a free pass on this one.” 

“Thanks, Arch,” Jughead nodded, turning to meet his smile with one of his own. 

“So now that it’s out in the open,” Archie wondered. “Are you going to make things official? I know we haven’t been close for a while but I think I’m correct in assuming that friends with benefits isn’t exactly your style.” 

“It’s what she wanted,” Jughead shrugged, standing from his spot on the step and shuffling his feet down the graveled walkway a few steps before turning back to his friend with serious eyes. “And I’d agree to anything if it meant being with her.” 

“You’re in love with her,” Archie guessed, watching the way his expression changed with the slightest mention of their childhood friend with the halo of golden hair and the kindest eyes that either one of them had ever seen. 

“Yeah, I am,” Jughead confessed. “And it’s simultaneously the most terrifying and exciting feeling I’ve ever experienced. But it’s Betty so I don’t remember there ever being a time when I haven’t felt this way.” 

“So what’s the problem?” Archie wanted to know, confused as to why a distant look of uncertainty had clouded his expression that prevented him from reaching the level of giddiness a teenager in love should have been feeling.

“I don’t know,” Jughead sighed. “There was this incident with Cheryl and-”

“Archie!” 

The sound of pounding footsteps came barreling down the pavement as Betty rounded the corner, her blonde ponytail nearly falling out of its elastic as she sped down the road. 

“Archie, I have to tell you something!” 

Betty slid to a halt when she approached the Andrews’ home, her eyes going wide at the unexpected sight of the estranged friends standing next to one another without their fists flying at each other’s faces or their bloody knuckles slamming into their jaws. 

“Jughead,” Betty breathed, her heart beating wildly in her chest at the sight of him. “What are you doing here?” 

“I told him, Betty,” Jughead informed her, nodding his head in Archie’s direction and shrugging at her helplessly. 

“You...” Betty trailed off, her mind putting two and two together and her stomach dropping in complete dread. “Oh.” 

“I think you two have a lot to talk about,” Archie muttered, backing away from the couple and smiling knowingly as he headed up the steps leading into the house. “I’ll be inside if you need me. In the words of Veronica, ‘use your outside voices, it makes it easier for those of us trying to eavesdrop!’” 

Archie hurried up the steps and into the house, shutting the door behind him so that Betty and Jughead were left alone to stare at one another wondering who was going to be the one to speak first. 

“So Archie knows,” Betty muttered, pulling anxiously at the hem over her lemon-colored cardigan and glancing back up at the house with nervous eyes.

“And the world didn’t implode,” Jughead pointed out, gesturing to the neighborhood that had not been blown to bits as a result of Archie’s knowledge of her relationship with Jughead and smirking. “Would you look at that.” 

“I’m sorry, Juggie,” Betty told him, taking a cautious step forward to close some of the distance between them. “I really screwed up. I think I was just afraid of letting myself get too close to someone. I mean look at Polly and Jason and even my parents - it’s like the Cooper girls are cursed in the relationships we form with other people, doomed to get our hearts broken.” 

“But you’re not them,” Jughead reminded her. “And I’m not Jason or your father.” 

Reaching out to place a gentle hand on his smooth cheek, Betty couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief when he didn’t immediately pull away. 

“I know you’re not,” Betty whispered, her eyes dancing with so much love and warmth for the boy who had been the one constant in her life that had made a shred of sense over the past few months. “That’s why I-”

Just as the words that she had been holding in since they had formed their newfound relationship all those months ago were mere seconds from falling from her lips, the sound of motorcycle engines tearing down the road caused them both to pull apart and turn towards the noise in confusion. 

“Jug,” an older man in a torn-up Serpent jacket called to him from his bike, the remainder of the gang stopping closely behind him as they watched the couple with a look of cautious distrust. “We gotta go. It’s your pops.” 

“What about him?” Jughead asked, glancing from the man sitting on the motorcycle in front of him, to the girl who was just moments away from uttering the words he had been longing to hear for weeks. 

“They’re pinning him for the attempted murder of Fred Andrews,” the man explained, nodding to the Andrews’ house sitting in front of them and frowning. “You shouldn’t be here.” 

“But he didn’t do it,” Jughead reminded him, thinking back to the investigation that had been closed a few weeks ago and remembering that they had cleared his father of any serious charges. “He didn’t do it... Right Red?”

“We should go,” Red repeated, starting the ignition and gesturing for Jughead to hop on the back of the seat. 

Jughead was frozen, torn between his life with Betty and the friend he had just now gotten back in his life, and his life with his father and the Serpents and all the uncertainties that came with it. 

“Jug?” Betty muttered, her brows drawn together in concern as she waited with bated breath to hear what his next move was going to be. 

Archie stepped back out onto the porch, taking in the half a dozen men on motorcycles with the same look of distrust that they had given Betty and the Andrews’ house when they had first pulled into the neighborhood. If Jughead got on that bike, his newly rekindled friendship would be damaged yet again, and the repercussions would not have as forgiving an ending as before. And the friends with benefits relationship that he had just barely wriggled his way out of and into something more meaningful with Betty Cooper, would soon turn into absolutely nothing at all. 

Taking a deep breath, Jughead took a step towards his decision and into the fate of the way his life was going to turn out from that point on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that the resolution with Jughead and Archie happened quickly but I did that for times sake and because it just made sense to me. Sorry if that bothers you though, I understand it might seem rushed! <3 Part 4 coming soon! It should be the last part unless something happens and I need to make a Part 5 lol! Thanks for reading and commenting and being amazing!


	4. Something Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Betty and Jughead decide once and for all what their relationship is or isn't going to be from now on, all the while they take a trip down memory lane at how they started their friends with benefits relationship in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the support guys! This is the last part, although I might add an epilogue a little later. Thanks for always reading and commenting, lovelies!! <3

“You should go home, Betty,” Jughead told her without meeting her gaze, his eyes locked on the signature Serpent design woven into the leather of Red’s jacket as he swung his leg over the side of the bike. 

“I’m coming with you,” Betty announced, joining him in front of the motorcycle with her arms crossed defiantly in front of her chest. 

“No, I don’t think-” Jughead started to protest, but Betty quickly cut him off my securing a firm hand on his elbow and leaning in to meet his gaze through the clear eye-protector on the helmet. 

“We still have a lot to talk about,” Betty admitted, her fingers clutching a fistful of leather as she met the dark-haired boy’s eyes with a look of fierce determination. “But I’m always going to be here for you, Jughead. That’s never going to change no matter what happens between us. Let’s go clear your dad’s name.” 

“Haven’t you learned by now?” Jughead asked, his voice slightly muffled from his mouth’s confinement behind the material of the helmet. “Being with me brings unwanted trouble that you shouldn’t have to be a part of. That was pretty evident from the first day we started this thing.” 

“I remember,” Betty whispered, reaching up on her tiptoes to remove the weighted-down helmet from his head and setting it back where it belonged, before pulling him off the bike with a tug of his hand. “And I also remember that trouble like this is what brought us together in the first place. Come on, I’ll drive.” 

6 MONTHS AGO

_“Didn’t think I’d ever find Betty Cooper in a place like this.”_

_Jughead stepped through the doors of the Whyte Wyrm to greet the golden-haired girl who was slumped over the bar with a Shirley Temple abandoned in front of her, his smirk twitching up at the corners of his lips as she turned in her seat to meet his gaze. “All that pastel really clashes with the dirt and grime this bar claims as its decor, don’t you think?”_

_“Well, I guess you don’t know me very well Jughead Jones,” Betty muttered, her green eyes dancing amusedly as she leaned back onto the counter with one elbow. “I live for dive bars whose food menu consists of grease, lard, and a little more grease with some beer drizzled over the top.”_

_“We fly our chef in from Paris every night just so we can have the finest cuisine you’ll ever find on this side of the river,” Jughead joked, his flirtatious grin growing wider as he took the empty seat next to her. “Don’t be intimidated, I know it’s a lot to take in.”_

_“It’s a lot of something, that’s for sure,” Betty teased, swiveling her legs back around so that they were tucked comfortably underneath the counter. “But I have to admit, I like it here. It’s a nice change of scenery.”_

_“What, the white picket fence and freshly pressed bed sheets aren’t doing it for you lately?” Jughead teased, quirking an amused eyebrow in her direction as she reached for the watered-down drink with a frown._

_“Something like that,” Betty mumbled into the pinkish-colored beverage, the playfulness that had just been so evident in her tone, now completely lacking._

_“It’s Polly isn’t it?” Jughead guessed, his eyes studying the side of her face intently as he watched the way her brows twitched up at the sound of her sister’s name._

_“How did you-”_

_“I know you better than you think, Betts,” Jughead informed her. “Plus one of the Serpents has a cousin who hangs around Jason’s crowd from time to time. He filled me in on most of the gory details.”_

_“Right,” Betty nodded slowly. “Well then you know that she’s gone. Skipped town to escape the rumors and lies Jason Blossom spread about her while he just waltzes through the halls like he owns them, completely unfazed by the whole ordeal.”_

_“Guys like Jason have no remorse for the pain they cause people,” Jughead muttered, his brows knitting together in resentment. “Someone needs to put him in his place.”_

_“What, and you’re the guy to do that?” Betty wondered, her lips quirking up in a mocking grin as he turned to wave to one of the Serpents playing pool at the other end of the bar._

_“No,” Jughead shrugged. “I’ve always been more of a lover than a fighter. Or have you forgotten already?”_

_“I don’t know how anyone could forget the way you avoided violence and confused Chuck Clayton into leaving me alone in the seventh grade by quoting obscure Chinese Proverbs,” Betty told him, her mind drifting back to the incident in question, Chuck’s bewildered expression as Jughead talked him into leaving her be for the duration of the school year, finding its way into her thoughts and making her smile. “He stopped picking on me just to get you to shut up, I’m sure of it.”_

_“Yeah, well, he was a tool,” Jughead muttered, his eyes tentatively flicking up to meet her gaze. “And I didn’t like the way he was treating my friend.”_

_Betty’s hand dropped from her chin to rest delicately on the leather material surrounding his forearm, smiling up at him gratefully as she turned in her seat to take in how much Jughead had changed since they were kids._

_“I’ve really missed this,” Betty admitted, her fingers twitching as she resisted the urge to sweep back the dark curl hanging down his forehead that just barely covered one of his eyes. “Talking to you always made me feel better. Still does.”_

_“Well,” Jughead whispered, his voice low and sultry as he scooted his stool closer to hers. “Maybe we could-”_

_“Jones.”_

_A booming voice coming from the front entrance of the room caused Betty and Jughead to turn abruptly in their seats to find Jason Blossom and his team of testosterone-rich footballers making their way towards them, looking angrier and more threatening with each step they took closer to the bar._

_“Shit,” Jughead cursed, slicking back his thick head of hair with one hand and turning to Betty, an apologetic grimace taking over his handsome features. “Betty, you should go.”_

_“I’m not going anywhere,” Betty told him defiantly, hopping off her stool and adjusting the lemon-colored cardigan that had fallen off one of her shoulders. “Things just got Telenovela level of interesting and Kevin would kill me if I missed the opportunity to be a part of it.”_

_“Suit yourself,” Jughead said skeptically, turning to the lettermen-jacket-clad gang of teenagers with an uncertain sigh. “Follow my lead.”_

\--

“Sheriff Keller,” Jughead burst through the doors of the police station with Betty following closely behind him. “How could you possibly think my dad was anything but innocent, you know where he was the night Fred Andrews was shot. You know it couldn’t have been him!” 

“I know that, son,” he said in a low voice, glancing behind his shoulder as the rest of the Serpents made their way into the building. “But I also knew that his gang of Serpents would come speeding to defend his honor on those death traps on wheels you call vehicular transportation. And that would make it that much easier to catch the real culprit.”

"The real culprit?” Jughead furrowed his brows in confusion as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening. “Who is it?” 

“Montgomery Redding,” another police officer emerged from the double doors at the other end of the hall, pulling his handcuffs out of his back pocket and heading straight for the older man that had told Jughead about his father’s arrest in the first place. “You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Fred Andrews. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of-”

“Red?” Jughead’s mouth hung open in surprise, his head swimming with so many thoughts as he tried to understand the motive for this kind of betrayal. “But why? You’re my dad’s right hand man. You knew that the Andrews’ territory was off limits. He trusted you, hell, I trusted you! How could you do this?” 

“Hiram Lodge made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Red shrugged helplessly, his arms contorting backwards as the officer secured the metal handcuffs tightly around his wrists. “Sorry son, but that was more profitable to me than your father’s trust.” 

“Jug, we should go,” Betty’s voice snapped Jughead out of the trance he had fallen into, her gentle touch comforting him as she made her way towards the back door. “Your dad is being released.” 

Jughead nodded for her to go ahead without him, stepping forward to lean in so close to Red that their noses practically grazed against one another’s. “You better hope Mr. Andrews makes it out of that hospital,” he threatened, his voice so low that it practically came out as a growl. “Or I swear to god, I’m going to find a way to make sure you take his place.” 

“More and more like your pops every day,” Red muttered, smirking up at him as if he had expected this moment to transpire someday. “You better be careful, Jughead. Your father should know better than anyone - it’s lonely being King of the Serpents. Hope you’re strong enough to choose between the girl and the power that comes with being a leader. Cause FP found out the hard way - it’s nearly impossible to have both.” 

“I’m nothing like my father,” Jughead muttered through gritted teeth. “Unlike him, I don’t want both - I only want her. She’s all that matters. That’s something that my father never learned. And it’s something I’ll make sure to never forget.” 

Jughead pushed back Red’s shoulder so hard that he tumbled to the ground, unable to keep his balance or break his fall with his handcuffed hands. With one last loathing glare behind him, Jughead pushed his way through the door leading out to the alley to meet Betty and his father. 

“You okay?” she asked, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on his cheek the way she always did when he was upset or unsure of himself. 

“Yeah,” he mumbled, glancing from his father, to the girl who made his whole world seem like it hadn’t come as close as it did to imploding in the worst ways possible. “I am now. Let’s go.”

\--

_“Go, go, go!” Jughead led Betty through the alley adjacent to the Whyt Wyrm, glancing behind him frantically as Jason and his goons chased them through the dark side-street leading out onto the main road._

_“You’re dead, Jughead!” Reggie Mantle yelled as he jumped over a pile of trash that had fallen away from the wall just outside the back entrance of the bar. “Nobody takes a swing at Jason Blossom and lives to tell about it!”_

_“Take a left!” Jughead instructed, holding onto Betty’s elbow with one hand and gesturing to a road that would take them across town. “Hurry!”_

_Making a sharp turn onto the road that Jughead had pointed out, Betty nearly slid on a littered pile of flyers that had been used to promote the town’s latest school sanctioned event as she skidded to a stop._

_“Jesus, Jug,” she breathed, reaching out to steady herself on the brick wall beside her once they had successfully outrun the football team that was out for blood. “What happened to you not being a fighter?”_

_Jughead took in the way her cheeks were flushed a beautiful rose color, her skin glistening in the harsh glow of the streetlamp illuminating the alley they had sought refuge in their attempt to escape an unwanted beating._

_“I guess I’ve been saving the lover part for something else,” he said in a low voice, his heart pounding wildly in his chest as he attempted to slow his breathing. His eyes were dancing wildly with adrenaline and unspoken feelings, boring into hers as he slowly made his way over to her to fill the gap that had grown between them._

_“Jughead Jones, I’ve never heard you talk like this before,” Betty muttered, her chest heaving up and down as she stepped away from him, teasing him slightly as she backed her way into the wall. “It’s kind of sexy.”_

_“Yeah?” he quirked a curious eyebrow, pinning her to the brick wall with one hand planted firmly on her waist and the other held high above her head. “How sexy?”_

_Instead of answering his question with words, Betty covered his mouth with her own, her tongue tangling with his as the passion and lust that had been building between them all evening finally caught up with them. Jughead’s hand slipped underneath her pale pink skirt, trailing up the sensitive skin on the inside of her thigh and circling around her hip to rest comfortably on her ass, his fingers pawing at the fabric of her cotton panties as he impatiently waited to see what her next move was going to be._

_“Not here,” Betty breathed, her lips brushing against his playfully as she gently pushed his chest away with a delicate hand. “Come on, I know a place.”_

_“Wait,” Jughead protested, his hand gripping hers as a way to hold her back, spinning her around to face him and meeting her eyes with a look of something much more than just passion and longing. “Betty, I-”_

_“Let’s not make things too complicated, okay?” Betty said quickly. “I want to be with you, but let’s just keep it light for now. I mean we’re friends right? Who says we can’t have that, with a little something extra from time to time?”_

_“Friends with benefits, huh?” Jughead scrunched up his nose, his eyebrow quirking in amusement as he reached forward to brush a strand of hair that had fallen onto her forehead. “I don’t know, Betts, it’s going to take a lot of restraint for you to resist falling in love with me.”_

_“I think I can handle it,” Betty assured him, meeting his flirtatious smirk with a playful one of her own. “I do love a good challenge after all.”_

\--

“When did our sleepy little town of Riverdale become a location plucked straight out of an Agatha Christie novel?” Betty asked, adjusting her position on the plaid blanket they had laid out in the abandoned shack that was once the projector room at the old Twilight Drive-In, and leaning forward to fiddle with the fraying edge of the fabric. 

“It was practically impossible for it not to with the drama our so called parents carry on their backs like a hiker lugging around his too-full pack through the forest,” Jughead shook his head in disbelief, leaning back against the far wall and resting his head there as his eyes wandered over the cluttered room that had quickly become their favorite spot in the six months they had carried on their relationship. 

“Is your dad going to be okay?” Betty wondered. “He seemed a little distant on the ride home - like he was a million miles away from here.” 

“He doesn’t have another look, Betts,” Jughead admitted, the sad note in his voice causing Betty’s brows to furrow in concern for him. “Distant is the only place he knows where to be. He’ll be fine.” 

“What about us?” Betty asked tentatively, her eyes flicking up to trace the expression on his face, searching for any sign of hate or resentment that might have been resting behind those kind eyes and soft lips. “We never got to finish our conversation before everything, you know, happened.” 

“It’s up to you, Betty,” he said simply, standing up from his crouched position on the wall to join her on the blanket. “I’m leaving it up to you to decide where we go from here.”

Betty was quiet for a moment, her eyes flying shut as she let the memories of this tiny room flood her with a range of different emotions that she held onto with pride and fondness every time she felt unsure of herself and her relationship with this dark-haired boy. 

“Do you remember what you said to me the first time we came here?” 

“I remember saying a lot of filthy things to you,” Jughead admitted suggestively, his hand reaching up to trail his finger along the exposed skin of her leg, following until they lingered dangerously around her thigh. “And doing a lot of filthy things to you.” 

“Juggie, come on,” Betty warned, narrowing her eyes at him sternly until he lifted his hand off of her leg and moved it safely onto his own knee. 

“You’re right, sorry,” he apologized, his eyes drifting down to focus on the red and black lines littering the blanket as his mind thought back to the day he and Betty first stumbled their way into this old building, frantic hands ripping off articles of clothing and passionate kisses trailing along exposed skin as they fought their way to be as close to one another as possible. 

“I told you that I had never understood why my parents could never make their relationship work. If I loved a girl as much as my father claimed to love my mother, I would do everything in my power to make damn sure I’d never lose her. Because to me, losing something that important and that rare, would have made everything else I had gained in her absence seem less than what it was. Without her, nothing else would have mattered.” 

“That’s when I knew that I was in trouble,” Betty admitted, a soft smile present on her lips as she folded her legs underneath herself. “I had told you only a few hours before that moment that I wasn’t going to fall in love with you. But as we lay here amongst the tattered picnic blankets and dusty old film canisters, tracing circular patterns along the sensitive parts of the other’s skin, I could feel myself slipping - becoming immersed in everything that you were and everything that we were destined to become. And I knew then, that I was a goner.” 

“Then why push me away?” Jughead asked quietly, his brows knitting together in confusion as he tried to understand the way she had acted over the past few months. “Why reduce our relationship to nothing more than friends with benefits?”

“I was afraid to be loved by someone as special to me as you are,” Betty muttered, her voice nothing more than a whisper. “I didn’t think I deserved it - I still don’t. But I don’t think it’s as impossible a thing as I did before. And that’s a start, right?” 

“You deserve so much more than me,” Jughead assured her, his voice soft as he leaned into her, shoulders nudging into one another and his nose grazing the tip of hers as they rested their foreheads together. “You deserve the world, Betty Cooper.” 

“Being here in this rundown shack at an abandoned drive-in with you?” Betty muttered, her hands grazing the delicate fabric of his cotton t-shirt and trailing along his biceps until they reached the crook between his neck and shoulder blade. “This is my idea of perfect. This is my favorite part of the world. And it’s all I need to be happy.” 

Not wasting another second, Jughead met her lips with a gentle kiss. Slow, but passionate, and very real, their worlds went silent and gray - only focusing on the way they felt when their lips were so in sync and their hearts beat together as one. While they had kissed one another hundreds of times in a hundred different ways in this very same projector room, this kiss meant more than any other one because to them, it meant the start of something Betty had been too afraid to start for far too long. It meant that this was the start of something real. 

“I guess I didn’t have as much restraint as I thought I did,” Betty admitted, pulling back from the kiss with a satisfied grin lingering at the corners of her lips.

“What do you mean?” 

“I ended up falling in love with you the way I promised I wouldn’t,” she declared, her eyes locked in on his with so much love and adoration that she had always felt lingering in the back of her thoughts. “And I’m usually so good at keeping promises.” 

“Trust me, Betty Cooper,” Jughead whispered, his hand smoothing the soft skin of her cheek with his thumb as he leaned forward to brush his lips against hers once more. “That’s one promise I’m more than happy to see broken.” 

While they knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, they also knew that the relationship that they had started sixth months ago in this very same room was so much more than what they had been labeling it. They meant so much more to each other, and if they were both being honest - they always had. And while they were still friends, and while there were damn sure to be benefits given to the other in a thousand different ways, they had pushed past the idea of friends with benefits into something real, and something much more meaningful. 

And they couldn’t have been happier.


End file.
